Archive for the ‘Democracy’ Category
Chukka Umunna: Britain is no saint and cannot lecture China about democracy
I will always argue for democracy. But I think we have to be quite careful when we seem to go around lecturing the rest of the world about these things.
Earlier this year Mr Umunna stormed out of a live television interview after being challenged over his failure to read a letter sent by the government to Muslim leaders.
At the time his aides played down the incident, but Mr Umunna revealed he was so angry he was told to "go to the loo and calm down". I was absolutely hopping mad, I was furious. I felt I was being attacked for not playing party politics with a very serious issue," he said.
In contrast to Ed Miliband, who has criticised "predatory" capitalism, Mr Umunna said that markets and business "are a force for good".
He said: "Ultimately the best way that we can close the equality gap and lift people out of poverty is by government working in partnership with business. God knows in China, and Im certainly not advocating a Chinese system, but their embrace of markets and reform has lifted millions of people out of poverty
Im really clear that business is the solution it is not the problem. On the whole, business is the way, through growing our economy, that we can deliver fairer outcomes. Any discussion about fairness or fairer rewards or distribution is pretty academic if you havent got businesses creating wealth, making profits, creating jobs and growth.
He praised proposals by George Osborne, the Chancellor, to give local authorities more control over health budgets, despite the fact they have been opposed by shadow health secretary Andy Burnham.
He said: Certainly if you want a more integrated model in health care I dont see how you can do that other than at a sub-national level. Now, in terms of the devo [plan] we havent seen the detail of what George Osborne has proposed. And Andy [Burnham]s quite right to point out the risks in that. But in terms of the principle I just dont think we can set our face against the idea of local decision making.
This is the interesting thing about what Osborne is proposing. Weve got to engage with this properly, intellectually. Is it a cynical move to cut the size of Government? Or is this is the progressive way, not necessarily a question of how much power is exercised but where it is exercised, more active institutions regionally. Ive talked a lot to Jon Cruddas about this over the years.
"If we want to build a new growth model and we want a progressive social policy, more integration in health and so on, decentralisation of decision making is the way to go.
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Chukka Umunna: Britain is no saint and cannot lecture China about democracy
Our worst political crises all started under dictatorship.
WHAT options lie beyond democracy for Pakistan? The national path to high-quality democracy is long and multi-staged globally. Transitional/nascent democracy follows autocracy. A few credible elections have been held here, governance remains poor, non-elected institutions often remain powerful and coups thus probable.
Stable democracy is where regular elections become routine, non-elected institutions subservient, coups improbable and governance starts improving, as in Indonesia. Finally, there is western-style mature democracy.
Pakistani democracy could never graduate beyond transitional democracy during its previous brief eras of four, five and 11 years (1947-51, 1972-77 and 1988-99). Even in the longest phase, four elected governments were dismissed prematurely.
The last 6.5 years represent democracys longest uninterrupted sojourn here. Pakistanis have only seen democracys worst face (transitional) but have never been allowed to witness stable democracy where its fruits begin sprouting. In contrast, non-democratic periods lasted 20 (1951-71), 11 (1977-1988) and nine (1999-2008) years.
Global experiences show that democracy has a longish gestation period but its performance improves, while that of autocracy deteriorates, with longevity. Pakistan has treated democracy like an infant given five years to start performing like adults, failing which it is executed for ostensibly destroying Pakistan.
Ironically, the adults who removed the infant to save Pakistan inflicted greater mortal damage. The worst democracies are supposedly better than the best autocracies. Pakistani experiences validate this saying. Even Pakistans transitional (ie the worst) democracies have outperformed its best (Ayubs and Musharrafs) autocracies overall. Superficially, both autocracies had higher economic growth rates than elected regimes.
However, the gap narrows considerably once one removes the contributions of external factors, eg, greater American aid to dictators and booming global economies during the Ayub and Musharraf eras but enormous global economic crises during the elected 1970s and post-2008 eras.
Even the remaining edge traceable to superior economic management under dictators loses its allure since Pakistans worst political crises all started under dictatorships. These include the alienation and separation of the former East Pakistan, spread of extremism and ethno-sectarian violence under Zia and rise of terrorism under Musharraf.
If even Pakistans transitional democracies have outperformed its best autocracies, how much better a stable democracy, if allowed in Pakistan, would do? Indonesias case is instructive for Pakistan here since both countries share many similarities. Both are large, ethnically diverse, Muslim countries with populations of around 200 million. Both suffered around 40 years of autocracy and disintegrated under it. Both have experienced serious terrorism.
However, since 1998, Indonesia has become a stable democracy and is today one of the three non-oil Muslim countries (along with Turkey and Malaysia) progressing economically. Ironically, all three are democracies, demolishing arguments about the non-compatibility of Islam, democracy and development. Those propagating East Asia-style dictatorship should study Indonesia most, since it is more similar to Pakistan.
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Our worst political crises all started under dictatorship.
Democracy Now: Copenhagen Attack [16.02.2015] – Video
Democracy Now: Copenhagen Attack [16.02.2015]
By: Tariq Ramadan
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Democracy Now: Copenhagen Attack [16.02.2015] - Video
Noam Chomsky: the Myth of "Capitalist Democracy" – Video
Noam Chomsky: the Myth of "Capitalist Democracy"
Chomsky exposes the flaws of hierarchical forms of democracy, and predicts Reaganism and trickle-down economics as the new American reality back in the 80 #39;s!
By: Reich-Wing Watch
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Noam Chomsky: the Myth of "Capitalist Democracy" - Video